Diagnostics & Testing

Your child may be required to get a school or sports phys­i­cal. Here’s what you and your child can expect at these exams.

In the Unit­ed States, more peo­ple are diag­nosed with skin can­cer each year than all oth­er can­cers com­bined. The best way to detect and treat skin can­cer ear­ly is by sched­ul­ing an annu­al skin exam­i­na­tion with your dermatologist.

Ear­ly detec­tion changes out­comes — for can­cer, for chron­ic dis­ease, for just about every­thing. And the only way to catch some­thing ear­ly is to actu­al­ly show up.

Here’s a look at the vis­its worth keep­ing on your radar, no mat­ter where you are in the year.

Con­fused about why your doc­tor ordered that car­diac CT or stress test? Find out exact­ly what hap­pens dur­ing these heart imag­ing pro­ce­dures and how they could save your life.

If you’re snor­ing loud­er than usu­al and can’t shake the exhaus­tion no mat­ter how much you sleep, your body might be fight­ing for air all night long. Women are espe­cial­ly at risk of miss­ing the warn­ing signs, and untreat­ed sleep apnea can lead to seri­ous heart prob­lems, stroke, and dan­ger­ous day­time drowsiness.

Your doc­tor found some­thing ​“abnor­mal” on your CT scan and now wants an MRI, here’s exact­ly what that means and why you should­n’t pan­ic about either the test or the results.

Did you know you could be over­pay­ing by hun­dreds or even thou­sands of dol­lars for the same MRI, CT scan, or X‑ray just by going to a dif­fer­ent facil­i­ty? With one sim­ple CPT code and a few phone calls, you can slash your med­ical imag­ing costs by 20 – 40% while get­ting the same, or bet­ter, care.

When your doc­tor says you need a PET/CT scan, it’s nat­ur­al to feel anx­ious about the unknown, espe­cial­ly when words like ​“radioac­tive trac­er” get thrown around. Get the straight answers about what hap­pens dur­ing the scan, why you need it, and how safe it actu­al­ly is.

You can have an STI with­out even know­ing it, and wait­ing too long to get test­ed can lead to seri­ous health risks. Learn when to get screened and what to expect so you can stay safe and in control.

A urine sam­ple is often used for a uri­nal­y­sis – a test on your urine that can help your provider man­age and detect health con­di­tions and dis­or­ders like uri­nary tract infec­tions, dia­betes, and kid­ney dis­ease. Here are 6 things to know about urinalysis.